Friday, December 11, 2015

Goodbye Concealed Handgun Permit

Come January 1st, anyone with a concealed handgun
permit can walk down the street with the holstered weapon in plain sight. This
sounds like the Wild West, right? Visions of wild-eyed Tea party radicals
swaggering around daring anyone to challenge them is one image that some may
conjure up. Another is a mom grabbing her child up by the arm and running from
the store because “that man has a gun, mommy”.

I will share my thoughts on the first scenario. It’s scary
and I hope I don’t see that fellar.No
one wants to see someone walking around with a gun on their hip acting like an
ego starving lunatic. I know a whole slew of people who legally carry and I
don’t think any of us plan on carrying any differently that we are right now.

Over many years I have repeated that no time in my history
have I seen a time of turmoil to match the 1960’s… until now. In case you are
unsure of what I am referring to, I’ll point it out in easy to understand terms
and I am not inferring you are incapable of understanding big words like verisimilitude.

The Vietnam War, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Bobby
Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr., the emerging drug culture, race riots, the
Yuppie movement, and the list goes on. I was a kid who witnessed the racial
tension and the war on the nightly news. I was soon to enter the fray upon
graduation from high school and I should have been carefree.

The truth is I felt the anxiety many years before I
graduated, but being an optimistic kid, I knew I would get through it. Many
years have passed between 1970 and 2015 and that old anxiety has came back. I
think it slowly began to slip back in about 3 years ago.Before I write anything else, I want to make
it very clear I am not trying specifically to target and bash Obama, even
though I think many of his decisions are taking us dangerously close to
anarchy, but it is what it is.

I think our government has lost contact with the very people
who voted them into a position of choosing what we need. They are no longer a
group who is doing the will of the people. The partisan squabbling and
resistance to work things out has led us to a President who appears to do
whatever he wants and a Secretary of State who is above the law… and no one
can or will do anything about it.

I’m not 100% sure here, but I think a great many Vietnam
Veterans cringe when they think about John Kerry as the chief foreign affairs
adviser. The Obama’s administrations total focus on climate change while
ignoring domestic terrorism is a perfect example of the cat chasing its own
tail while ignoring the rats creeping in through open holes.

Mr. Obama is predictably going after the guns while him and
his family are guarded and will be guarded for the rest of their lives by men
with guns. His life matters, but yours evidently does not. It is the most
preposterous paradox I have ever seen. Why is it that they cannot see this? They
are surrounded by people with guns protecting them, but Mr. Obama and all his
cronies want us to give up our right to carry a firearm and protect our
families. The bad guys have machine guns and travel in packs and we can only
have a long gun that shoots 5 bullets? What? The President’s guys have machine
guns and 30 round magazines under their coats. Our lives don’t matter.

It reminds me of the English officer in Last of the Mohicans
wondering why Hawkeye can call himself a loyal subject of England and not fight for the king.
Hawkeye flat told the officer he didn’t see himself as a subject to any man and
that is the direction we are heading. Obama and Hillary are above the very laws
they expect us to obey and I am far from being alone in this observation.Hillary should be in jail right now.

As head of the CIA, General David Petraeus was having an
affair. This, as far as I know is not a crime. His crime was that he didn’t
tell anyone and this put him in a position of compromise and possibly being
blackmailed. For this he was bounced out and disgraced.“Eventually, he pleaded guilty to a
misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified information Petraeus allegedly
provided to his mistress and biographer.”

On the other hand, righteous Hillary has violated so many
laws concerning classified material and yet is a front runner for President of
the United Sates? Really? Seriously?As
an ex-First Lady, she is protected by Secret Service agents for the rest of her
life and she’s going after the guns also? The idiocy of her hypocrisy is only
hidden to those who blindly disregard her illegal transgressions and will giddily
punch her ticket at the voting booth. I swear, the woman could come out saying
she killed and ate a baby seal every morning for breakfast and folks would
excuse her.

One reason the Second Amendment keeps getting so much
attention is veterans of foreign wars know that arming ourselves is no fantasy
strategy. War and terrorism on our soil is not only a possibility, but probably
coming to our streets. Burying our heads in the sand is not only unrealistic,
but living a Utopian dream. No, I will not open carry, but I won’t go out
without my usual.

21 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Gordon Little: I really don't plan to carry differently either, but I like that we now have a choice. I may want to wear a different rig at one time or another, or for one reason or another... I just like having the choice.

Joseph Dykehouse: Great article Mr Marshall. I voted for President Obama twice. I am in organized labor and that is an entity that got blamed for the world's problems, but it was how the middle class was built. The Democratic Party supports labor. As far as foreign policy goes they are living in la la land. You dont negotiate...with anyone!!!

Johnny Connaly: I open carried for 32 years, so to speak, so it's not a big deal for me. It will be nice though, not having to be overly concerned when I help a short person (my wife) get something off the top shelf in a store and accidentally flash. Officers that I know in open carry states tell me that it's really a non-event and very few choose to open carry. As Gordon stated, it will be nice to have the choice. I am curious about scenes caused by anti-gun nuts and negative coverage by the liberal media. If I experienced 2 incidents of people being upset seeing a handgun, while on duty in non-traditional police attire, I'm sure there will be a few for the armed citizens.

Kimberly Lopez: When I lived in Springhill, LA it was normal to see people open carry so it was not a big deal. Hunting was a big thing, we had hunter safety and gun safety in school so everyone was aware of proper safety, use and cleaning of firearms. People drove around with their rifles and shotguns in gun racks in their pickups or their sidearms holstered to their sides. I moved back to Texas in 1983 and guns were to be feared. frown emoticon People it's not the guns, it's who is carrying them and if they are properly trained. Guns do not shoot people. Ignorant people shoot people.

Johnny Connaly: Actually, we had them in gun racks at high school in League City,Texas at least until 1978 when I graduated and they were plentiful. The reason that you don't see them now in gun racks is the same reason I would say you're foolish to leave your purse sitting on the seat of your car. It's weird that I never heard of a car being broken into until the 80's. Now it's like it's Americas past-time. I wished that the State of Texas would make firearm safety a part of public education. BPD had the Eddie Eagle teaching materials, but never had anyone to request firearm safety. On a separate topic, I also think that first aid should be taught in 5th, 8th, and 11th grades for the event of a mass casualty on campus.

Kimberly Lopez: true, now days, people have no respect for themselves or other peoples property. We've taken God out of schools and people have run wild. Used to be a prison record was a shameful thing but some people today take it as a badge of honor.

Burt, I think it will be a non event. But I like the idea of not having to Hide my weapon and attach all kinds of extra stuff to my person to that effect. The real problem is on the officers not to profile to the legal folk who are going to open carry and to the folks who do open carry not to over react to people who are in informed about the law. Signage will also be an issue as there will be 2 official signs, a 30.06 and the new 30.07 for those who do not want open carry in their establishment.

Wanda Waters: Bert you just said what the majority of "we the people" believe right now. I have always been afraid of guns but did purchase one back during the summer and am learning to use it. As far as carrying it around for everyone to see..not there yet. I did see a guy in Publix the other day with one on his hip and I admit it made me uneasy so will just keep mine hidden...for now.Loved the article BTW.

KC: Bert, I don't think president Obama and his cronies are asking us to give up our right to carry a firearm and protect our families but just tighter gun control in attempt to keep the assualt weapons out of the nuts hands. This will never happen because the world is run by nuts. But, I will tell president Obama to be real careful in asking for tighter gun control because all the guns will end up in a certain group of people hands and other groups will be left with rocks and spears.

Don Hollaway: And they kicked Nixon out for the tapes. Constitution bypassing and lying is forgiven nowadays. I figured several years ago when Obama hired Al Sharpton it was a move to quell riots, just the opposite has happened.I hate for my grandchildren to grow up in this generation.

RL: Heard of a guy doing the open carry thing in a Wal Mart. Happen to notice a ball bat coming at him just before it made contact. The bat swinger was a felon and thought it was good chance to score a nice Sig. Gonna keep mine under cover.